Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Seven-division titlist, Manny Pacquiao, of the Philippines, will be featured in an upcoming segment of 60 minutes, Top Rank publicist, Lee Samuels, told FanHouse on Sunday.

Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 knockouts), who already has graced the cover of the Asian edition of Time Magazine, earned his current WBO welterweight (147 pounds) title with November's 12th-round knockout of Miguel Cotto, and will defend it on March 13 at The Dallas Cowboys' Stadium in Arlington, Tex., against Joshua Clottey (35-3, 20 KOs).

"Their crews will be with him throughout the days leading up to the fight, and they will be at the fight and have full access during the fight and after the fight," said Samuels. "They're hopes were that they are planning to release the segment sometime before his next fight, so they're talking about it airing in September."

Pacquiao was recently named Fighter Of The Year for the third time, Fighter Of The Decade for the first time, and his trainer, Freddie Roach (Pictured above, at left, with Pacquiao), Trainer Of The Year for an unprecedented fourth time -- all both by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Top Rank CEO, Bob Arum, told Michael Marley of The Boxing Examiner on Sunday that CBS is expected to begin shooting on Valentines Day at Roach's Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, Calif.

"It just shows that interest in Manny has transcended sports, gone beyond that," Arum told Marley, who first reported the news. "Good Morning America on the ABC network is also going to do something on Manny. It is really phenomenal how the interest is widening on Pacman."

Beyond boxing, there is certainly plenty to talk about concerning Pacquiao, who is perhaps the most prominent cross-over boxing star since Muhammad Ali, and even shares his nickname, "The Greatest," while also being dubbed, "Pac-Man."

Pacquiao already has been featured in ESPN Magazine's 'Body Issue,'has displayed his modest singing and comedic skills as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live, been featured in main stream newspapers such as The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, and been selected among Time Magazine's Top 25 People Who Mattered in 2009 --listed alphabetically directly behind the United States' first African American president, Barack Obama.

A hero to his native Filipinos, Pacquiao delivered food to his countrymen in devastated Manila only a few days prior to landing in America over the final weeks of training for Cotto -- this after the area had been ravaged by two typhoons.

Born into poverty as Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao in Kibawe, Bukidnon, Pacquiao is considered a man of strong, Christian faith. Pacquiao's first name in The Bible means "God is with us."

There is plenty about Pacquiao (pictured with strength trainer Alex Ariza, at right) that is coincidental if not symbolic, such as the facts that his birthday is eight days prior to Christmas, and he arrived in America from the Philippines on Jan. 17 in order to attend press tours for his bout with Clottey -- a date that happened to be Ali's 68th birthday as well as the day prior to the annual observation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

Pacquiao, who shot a super hero movie, WaPak Man, that was released on Christmas, will run for congress in the Philippines. The championn will begin campaining on March 26, with the elections slated for May 10

Meanwhile, Pacquiao has remained a hit financially as well as literally in the ring, where he is riding a winning streak of 11-0 with eight knockouts since losing a unanimous decision to Erik Morales in March of 2005.

That winning streak includes having stopped Morales in the 10th, and, third round, respectively; decisions over Mexican greats, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez; and knockouts in his past four bouts over David Diaz, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, and, Miguel Cotto, in succession, over nine, eight, two, and, 12 rounds.

Pacquiao-Cotto generated 1.25 million HBO pay per view buys, which represented the highest performing boxing pay-per-view event in 2009, and which was "the biggest event of the year for pay per view from the standpoint of revenue generated," said Arum.

Pacquiao-Clottey appears to be doing well also, with about 30,000 of the 45,000 tickets for the event already having been sold.

Manny Pacquiao Profile

Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao born December 17, 1978, more commonly known as Manny Pacquiao, is a Filipino professional boxer.

He is currently the WBO World welterweight champion, Ring Magazine light welterweight champion, and is rated by Ring Magazine as the number 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world.

He is also the former WBC World lightweight champion, WBC World super featherweight champion, IBF World super bantamweight champion, and WBC World flyweight champion. Furthermore, he is the former Ring Magazine featherweight and super featherweight champion.

Joshua Clottey Profile

Joshua Clottey (born in March 16, 1976 in Accra, Ghana) is a Welterweight boxer who hails from Accra, Ghana, but now lives in the Bronx, New York. He is the former IBF Welterweight Champion.